The last stop on our tour of ancient cities was Venice. Only a three hour train ride from Rome and not too far out of the way on our way back to Zurich we decided we should make a quick stop on the end of our trip as rumor has it the city is going to sink one day. We didn't know quite what to expect as we had heard varying opinions from other people - some saying they loved it and others saying don't bother to spend much time as it's just a tourist trap. With both of those opinions we opted for a 1.5 day stop, enough to hopefully take in the atmosphere but not too long if we didn't care for it. At the end of the day we were both happy with our decision. Even though Venice doesn't have near the multitude of sights to offer as other European cities we could definitely see ourselves going back again. The city was so completely unlike anywhere we have been before and it was fun to just get lost wandering the tiny streets and bridges along the canals. And there was something about the atmosphere after dark... maybe it was the eerie lighting, the silent gondolas passing you by, or something else but I just felt like I was in a special place. Here are some views of the canals, I just couldn't get enough...
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| Rialto Bridge |
Our one main stop on our agenda was to get to St. Mark's Square and see the Basilica and clock tower there. It was once again another spectacular church, and for those of you familiar with Byzantine architecture it is supposed to be one of the best examples. It sits adjacent to Doge's palace, which we also found quite interesting architecturally. The other must do during our short stay was of course to take a gondola ride! While being a complete rip-off at 100 Euros for a 30 - 40 minute ride, it was another thing unlike anything we had experienced. It was a great way to see the city and just sit back and take it all in. We also had fun talking to our gondolier and learning more about the city and learning how difficult it really is to steer that long and narrow boat despite making it look so easy! We were so impressed at how carefully he manuevered every tight turn without so much as rubbing up against a building. We learned it didn't come without a lot of practice as he had been doing it for over 20 years and when he was first learning he fell in the canals several times!
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| St. Mark's Basilica and Doge's Palace |
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| San Marco Square (St. Mark's) and the Clock Tower |
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| Someone loved her gondola ride! |
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| What a memorable day |
The remainder of our time was spent doing just as we had been instructed to do - we put away our map and just wandered. We had the best time finding lots of tiny shops and narrow streets. And to our surprise we had a much easier time than expected finding our way back at the end of the day!
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| Exploring the canals |
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| There was something beautiful and different around every corner it seemed |
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| We got hungry from all of our wandering! |
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| Found Rialto bridge again... |
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| Headed back to the train station on our last day on a vaporetto |
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| There appeared to be a race going on in the canals the day we left... |
We were sad to go as we packed up and headed out on our last day, but decided that the short visit was for the best because the charm and delight of the city might wear off if we spent too long. Unfortunately there was no fountain here to throw a coin in in hopes of coming back one day, but I certainly hope we return for a short visit one day again before the city sinks below the water! However, I'll hope when we go back that our return trip home goes more smoothly than this one did as our train that was supposed to take about 6.5 hours to get back to Zurich turned into 8 hours. And instead of only having to change trains once as planned we had to change trains four times as there was a small rock slide on one of the tracks coming back through the south of Switzerland. Oh well, no trip would be complete without at least a few travel headaches right?!
The last stop on our tour of ancient cities was Venice. Only a three hour train ride from Rome and not too far out of the way on our way back to Zurich we decided we should make a quick stop on the end of our trip as rumor has it the city is going to sink one day. We didn't know quite what to expect as we had heard varying opinions from other people - some saying they loved it and others saying don't bother to spend much time as it's just a tourist trap. With both of those opinions we opted for a 1.5 day stop, enough to hopefully take in the atmosphere but not too long if we didn't care for it. At the end of the day we were both happy with our decision. Even though Venice doesn't have near the multitude of sights to offer as other European cities we could definitely see ourselves going back again. The city was so completely unlike anywhere we have been before and it was fun to just get lost wandering the tiny streets and bridges along the canals. And there was something about the atmosphere after dark... maybe it was the eerie lighting, the silent gondolas passing you by, or something else but I just felt like I was in a special place. Here are some views of the canals, I just couldn't get enough...
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